Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport is scheduled to suspend commercial air traffic for one hour later this month for an anti-takeover drill. It is reported that the maneuvers would involve members of the Aviation Special Forces Command and Army Airborne Special Forces posing as an invading enemy, with ground troops deployed to repel the simulated takeover attempt.
The drill is to be part of the live-fire component of this year’s Han Kuang military exercises from July 24 to 28. The airport drill has been tentatively set for July 26 and the planned one-hour suspension of air traffic indicates that it would likely last less than that to limit the inconvenience for travelers. All major airlines are to be informed of the event, while an international air traffic broadcast would also be issued.
The drill is significant because it would be the first time this type of exercise has been staged at the airport since it opened in 1979. As a responsive measure to counter the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) growing threat, it puts the principle of “taking military drills to the future battlefield” into practice.
Northern Taiwan is in the military’s “third combat zone” and is a critical point of defense. Of the major airports in northern Taiwan, Taoyuan airport is the nation’s most important, while Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) is a mid-size commercial facility and air base. Only Hsinchu Air Base is a full-time military installation.
From a military defense point of view, Taoyuan airport boasts the advantages of accommodating space for military use, wide runways and close proximity to Taipei. It is not the only air-based gateway into Taiwan, but it is a site of critical military value.
After all, the PLA’s ambition of annexing Taiwan has so far resulted in the deployment of ballistic missiles, helicopters, large military transport aircraft and landing craft. If the PLA were to invade using an amphibious attack or elite operations, Taoyuan airport would be prone to attack in either scenario and become a rendezvous site for troops.
The PLA could launch intensive attacks on military bases in northern Taiwan with surface-to-surface missiles before attacking Taoyuan by deploying amphibious military vessels or civilian boats. China would then use helicopters to transport military personnel and equipment to attack Taoyuan airport. If such a scenario were to happen, it would put the airport’s flexibility and spontaneous response capabilities to the test, and pressure the air defense, anti-tank and anti-infiltration capabilities of Taiwan’s army.
In the strategy to defend Taiwan and Penghu, as long as the army can hold Taoyuan airport, then the PLA’s plan of invading northern Taiwan would be greatly hindered.
Although advanced rehearsal and live-fire drills would inconvenience commercial airline companies and travelers, national security should always come first. To give the national army full support, the public should support the drills and do their part for national defense.
Ray Song is a doctoral student in Tamkang University’s Institute of International Affairs and Strategic Studies.
Translated by Rita Wang
Jan. 1 marks a decade since China repealed its one-child policy. Just 10 days before, Peng Peiyun (彭珮雲), who long oversaw the often-brutal enforcement of China’s family-planning rules, died at the age of 96, having never been held accountable for her actions. Obituaries praised Peng for being “reform-minded,” even though, in practice, she only perpetuated an utterly inhumane policy, whose consequences have barely begun to materialize. It was Vice Premier Chen Muhua (陳慕華) who first proposed the one-child policy in 1979, with the endorsement of China’s then-top leaders, Chen Yun (陳雲) and Deng Xiaoping (鄧小平), as a means of avoiding the
As the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) races toward its 2027 modernization goals, most analysts fixate on ship counts, missile ranges and artificial intelligence. Those metrics matter — but they obscure a deeper vulnerability. The true future of the PLA, and by extension Taiwan’s security, might hinge less on hardware than on whether the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) can preserve ideological loyalty inside its own armed forces. Iran’s 1979 revolution demonstrated how even a technologically advanced military can collapse when the social environment surrounding it shifts. That lesson has renewed relevance as fresh unrest shakes Iran today — and it should
The last foreign delegation Nicolas Maduro met before he went to bed Friday night (January 2) was led by China’s top Latin America diplomat. “I had a pleasant meeting with Qiu Xiaoqi (邱小琪), Special Envoy of President Xi Jinping (習近平),” Venezuela’s soon-to-be ex-president tweeted on Telegram, “and we reaffirmed our commitment to the strategic relationship that is progressing and strengthening in various areas for building a multipolar world of development and peace.” Judging by how minutely the Central Intelligence Agency was monitoring Maduro’s every move on Friday, President Trump himself was certainly aware of Maduro’s felicitations to his Chinese guest. Just
In the US’ National Security Strategy (NSS) report released last month, US President Donald Trump offered his interpretation of the Monroe Doctrine. The “Trump Corollary,” presented on page 15, is a distinctly aggressive rebranding of the more than 200-year-old foreign policy position. Beyond reasserting the sovereignty of the western hemisphere against foreign intervention, the document centers on energy and strategic assets, and attempts to redraw the map of the geopolitical landscape more broadly. It is clear that Trump no longer sees the western hemisphere as a peaceful backyard, but rather as the frontier of a new Cold War. In particular,
RSS